A Tale of Four Marauders
by remusu
Summary: Will be Slashy in the near future. Remus, Peter, Sirius and James share a Muggle apartment after graduating from Hogwarts. Follows what happens when four newly-trained Wizards are let loose in the world to make something of themselves.
1. Disclaimer! Please read!

**_DISCLAIMER! Please read!!_** I'll love you forever if you do! Really. If this wasn't important, I wouldn't bother with it. 

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**NOTE**: I am now actively working on this fic again. For the few of you who reviewed when it first got posted, thank you, and I hope you've managed to find it again. For those of you just stumbling across it, I hope you like it.

Special thanks to ms. halley  bom-bally for finding it, reading it, and reviewing. She reminded me that I need to pick this back up again.

Now, the Disclaimer:

This is a kind of long disclaimer. The reason for its length is I want to state everything NOW, instead of having it at the beginning of each chapter. It's easier for me, and will save me a headache. Please, please read this. It will clear up a lot for you guys later on. 

Okay, firstly, here's the legal junk: 

I do not own anything from the HP books. The characters, the places, the candy…anything JK has in the book.

However, I _do_ own the plot of this fic. It came out of my head. This is the result of extreme boredom and a plot bunny attacking me. Any places I make up-like the apartment complex that the Marauders live in-belong to me, too. And I will have quite a few places made up, seeing as they live in Britain and I live in a silly little beach city with next to no culture. We don't even have a Starbucks here people (actually, we do now...but...you get the picture), so don't expect me to get a city as large as London portrayed perfectly. I probably won't. But that's what the "review" button and e-mail is for. I'm very willing to listen to anyone who has something constructive to say. 

Now for the other half of my disclaimer:

This fic takes place a few months after Remus, Sirius, James and Peter have graduated from Hogwarts. 

This is definitely an AU. It is set around present day.

Why? _Because I'm the one writing it_. 

And because of the time-frame I would have to work with.  I'm setting this fic in the present, instead of the late 70's/early 80's, which is when it would have to be set to match the book's time-line. Harry _was born in 1981, so for my story to match the book-verse I would have A LOT of research to do about the technology and pop culture of that time. Sadly, I am a high school senior, and don't have a lot of extra time to find out what life was like about 20 years ago, as much fun as it would be. _

I don't know how long this will continue, how long I will stick with it, or how close to the events in the book I'll have the plot stay. James and Lily might live; I might have them die like they do in the book. I haven't gotten that far yet. ^^: All I have is the general idea, and a few ideas that my friends have helped me with.

Oh, and about couples. I am a shounen-ai/yaoi fan. To most non-anime fans, that's what's called Slash. Remus and Sirius will become a couple at some point in the story, because they're so darn cute together. If that bothers you, then go away. It won't happen for awhile, though, and I'll warn you before it does.

One additional thing about pairings: My darling friend Uzu-chan came up with this really great character. And I thought he and Remus would be good together. So, at the beginning, Remus is going to be with another guy besides Siri. If you don't like that, too bad. Remus and Sirius are going to get together, just not right away. Its my fic, I like the character Uzu came up with, so I'm going to use him. Hopefully you guys'll like him, too.

That's about it. Sorry this is so long, and if you read all of it, or at least skimmed it, then I really appreciate it. You just saved me a few minutes of my time in which I won't have to restate this to someone who just ignored it and got all pissy because of something I've already explained in the first place. 

And now, please read the fic!

Enjoy, and like I said, don't hesitate to e-mail me if you see something that could be made better, or needs work. I'll listen. I might not change it, but I'll take any constructivecriticism I can get my hands on. 

Now, onwards to the story!


	2. Chapter One: Getting Settled and Soapy F...

Here's the fixed version of chapter one. I've renamed it and fixed the italics, but have other wise left it alone. Hopefully I'll have the second chapter fixed tonight, and the third one done by the end of next weekend. I'd say I'd have it up this weekend, but it's Homecoming and my friends are making me go. 

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**Chapter One: Getting Started **

Remus, Sirius, James and Peter looked around apartment they would be living in for the next couple years.

"I still say it's too small," Sirius said with a slight pout.

"We know. You've told us only about 100 times, that's all," James laughed.

Remus sighed. James, of course, saw this as an adventure. They were renting a small Muggle apartment a few blocks away from the Leaky Cauldron, mainly because they couldn't afford the available apartments actually in the alley at the moment. It also helped that a friend of Sirius' uncle owned the complex and was willing to let them have it at half the normal rent. There were a few other wizards living there, too, and it was always a good thing to have a few others around, especially with the trouble James and Sirius seemed to unconsciously cause when left to their own devices for a few hours. At least Peter and James had gotten over their amazement at the electric lights and had stopped flicking them on and off while Remus and Sirius looked on in amusement.

Still, the young werewolf was a bit skeptical about the four of them sharing an apartment. He knew it was really the only thing they could afford at the moment, and they had shared a dorm at Hogwarts...of course at Hogwarts the house-elves took care of the cooking and cleaning. He had a sinking feeling that he, as the only one of the four without a job, would be playing house keeper. He sighed again and rubbed his temples as he heard loud voices and laughing coming from the kitchen. Apparently James and Peter had discovered the wonders of the modern-day Muggle refrigerator.

Sirius sat on the kitchen counter, swinging his long legs and watching Peter and James play with the automatic ice maker. 

/_At least they've gotten over the electric lighting/ he mused, grinning at Remus as the amber-eyed boy walked into the room._

"Get off the counter, Sirius," he glared at his dark-haired friend. 

Sirius pouted and hopped down. "But what are counters good for, besides sitting on? Huh, Remmy?"  he teased.

"Preparing food on. But not after you've sat on them in those dusty jeans of yours..."

James and Peter stopped in the middle of trying to see if the light in the fridge really did go out when you shut the door and glanced at their two friends. They sensed one of their arguments coming on, and decided to leave the question of the fridge light alone for now and stop the oncoming fight.

"I don't care how much girls like those pants, they're worn out and gross and I won't have them on my nice clean counter tops!"

"_Your_ counter tops? And I suppose this is_ your_ apartment, too?" 

"No, but I'm the only one who can actually cook besides James, and he'll be too busy at work to cook much."

James looked at his two arguing friends. Really, their fights could be amusing at times. Too bad he didn't want to be down a house mate or two before they even moved in.

"Remus, Sirius will clean the counters. Sirius, just don't sit on them again. Honestly, you two. You'd think you were a bickering couple the way you go at it sometimes," James scolded in a mocking tone.

Sirius and Remus looked at James, looked at each other, and blushed. 

"We do not! We--" Sirius protested, but was cut off by Remus who was still slightly red. 

"The sponge and soap are by the sink. You need to clean the counters. I'll...go...unpack something else. Yes..." Remus mumbled as the turned and left the room. James laughed to himself as Sirius looked at the brunet's retreating back in confusion.

/_This is going to be interesting.../ James thought as he followed Remus._

"Hey, Moony! Wait! I'll help!"

Sirius grumbled as he began to clean the counters. Peter looked confused as he turned around and started to unpack the dishes.

-------------

On top of the stress of moving, Sirius and Remus had another one of their Fights.  "Fights" with a capital F. Every once and a while, they'd have a really huge argument and not speak to each other for a few days. It usually happened near the full moon, and they always made up before Remus' transformation. 

Unfortunately for James and Peter, the full moon was still a couple weeks off, so they had to deal with the random insults being flung back and forth, and the occasional large object that was aimed for Sirius' head. 

Peter cringed as he heard a large "clang" from the kitchen, accompanied by a loud "Crap!" 

He and James looked at each other.

"We better go make sure no one gets hurt!" Peter said. James nodded and they headed towards the kitchen to see what had happened.

---------------

Sirius snuck up behind his Remus, who was washing the dishes. He was planning to hug him from behind and apologize for whatever he had done. The funny thing was that he and Remus could never really remember what they fought over. It seemed that after a while they just seemed to be throwing insults-and in Remus' case, random heavy objects-at each other.  

Sadly for him, Remus was deep in thought, and didn't sense Sirius' presence when he entered the room. Remus, being a werewolf, could have very violent reactions when snuck up on or caught unaware, and even though it didn't happen very often, the results usually weren't that good. 

Sirius barely managed to duck the soapy frying pan Remus swung out with as he turned around to see who had grabbed him.

"Crap!" the black-haired boy yelled, falling hard onto his behind. "Holy fuck Remus, what the hell was that for?" 

Remus sighed, and, putting the pan back in the sink, walked out of the room as James and Peter entered. 

"What happened?" Peter asked.

Sirius just sighed and followed the werewolf. He would deal with Remus being moody and even generally bitchy around the full moon, but on a normal day… No. he was going to find out what was making the somber, amber-eyed young man turn PMS-y and try to fix it.

He just hoped he could get it out of his friend and remain in one un-maimed piece. He did have a date the next evening, after all.

___________________________________

There's the first chapter. More to come, I promise. ^^; 


	3. Chapter Two: Dark Marks and Romance Nove...

Yay! Chapter two! Plot starts to form. We find out why Remus is in such a bad mood. Peter has a couple lines (I need a personality for him. Some help, anyone?) Severus makes an appearance (because I like him and I want him in my story), along with Dumbledore.  
  
Sorry this took so long to get out. I had Plot Block for a couple days, and then I got busy. Now that I have a lot of things worked out in my head it'll be easier to write.  
  
Enjoy!  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Sirius walked over to Remus, who had spread himself over the couch in the den. The animagi sat down at the end of the couch by Remus's feet.  
  
"I was here first" Remus muttered  
  
"What?" Sirius asked.  
  
"Here. On the couch. I was here first. Notice how I was taking up the whole thing.or did you not bother to even look before you sat down?"  
  
"Well, there's room for me, too. Sorry, Moony, but there's not exactly enough of you to take up the whole couch, y'know?" Sirius teased, poking at his friend's feet. The smaller boy took up a good three-fourths of the couch, and there was barely enough space for Sirius to squeeze in, but, being Sirius and having no qualms about invading personal space, he managed it.  
  
Sirius let out a sigh, wishing Remus would have done what he usually would have-curl up a bit and listen to Sirius ramble on about anything and everything, occasionally adding his own comments or advice, or comforting him, or just listening and watching and smiling gently; even laughing every once and a while when the black-haired young man said something that struck Remus's off-beat sense of humor.  
  
The werewolf felt Sirius's eyes on him and glanced up. "Do you have a reason for being here, or are you just going to stare? It's rather annoying, you know." He asked the other boy.  
  
Sirius took a deep breath, and started his rapid-fire mumbling. "Are you okay? What's wrong? 'Cause, y'know, I'm-we're-me an' James an' Peter, too, are really, really worried 'cause, y'know, the full moon isn't for a couple of weeks. And you're actin' all, well, like you do before the full moon an' I was wondering."  
  
"Sirius.I'm fine. Just...a bit edgy, with all the moving in and you, James and Peter starting jobs soon...I'm still getting used to the fact that I'll be in the house alone." Remus mumbled into the couch.  
  
"Bull. That's not what's bothering you. If it were, you'd be looking me in the eyes and wouldn't have your face buried in that damned couch cushion. So spill it, Remus." Sirius all but growled out. He slid off the couch and onto the floor in front of his friend. Placing a hand on the small of Remus's back, he gently added, "We really are worried about you. Even before a full moon you don't attack people with frying pans"  
  
"That was your fault for sneaking up on me." Remus glared.  
  
"I was coming to apologize for whatever I had done to piss you off earlier. You know, you're not the dammed easiest person to get along with, Remus." The dog animagi bit out, glaring at his friend's head.  
  
"Then why do you like me? Why do you put up with me?" Remus shot back, now matching Sirius's glare with one of his own.  
  
Sirius sighed "I'm not going to fight with you about this. If you don't want to talk, then don't."  
  
Remus sighed. "Fine. I'll tell you, but you have to get James and Peter in here, because I'm only going to say it once, and answer any questions once."  
  
Sirius blinked and walked out of the room and into the kitchen where James and Peter were waiting. ~~~~~~~~  
  
Severus sighed as he sat in front of a large desk. It was a very interesting desk, covered in various odds and ends that told a lot about the owner of the desk. Unfortunately for Severus, what the desk told him was a complete antithesis of what he thought he knew about the owner. For instance, he would never have taken Dumbledore to like the Muggle game of Pokemon, let alone anything having to do with knitting...and was that a magazine about tropical birds?  
  
"Ah, Severus, how spiffing to see you. It's a rare pleasure to be visited by an ex-student this soon after graduation." Albus Dumbledore smiled kindly at the young man sitting in front of the desk.  
  
Severus Snape, a young man with mid-back length, slightly-greasing looking black hair and pale skin. His long, thin frame, combined with the loose hair and slightly wide, deep black eyes gave him an almost feminine look...until you noticed his beaked nose and thin lips. Not a bad looking young man; he just wasn't pretty enough-or handsome for that matter-to be noticed. Even though if he really wanted to, he could stick out. Yes, perhaps if he cut his hair or kept it pulled back so people could see his face...  
  
"Headmaster?" Severus questioned, frowning as the old man studied him with his intense blue eyes.  
  
"What, oh, right. Sorry. Mind wandered for a minute there. Now, dear boy, what was it that you want to talk to me about?"  
  
"I-"  
  
"Oh, hold on, how rude of me...I forgot to offer you tea..." Dumbledore flicked his wand and a tray appeared, loaded with a full, fragrantly steaming teapot and a variety of sandwiches and tea cakes. "Would you care for some te-" the old man was cut off as his ex-student yanked up his sleeve to reveal an ugly, glowing black mark of a snake coming out of the mouth of a skull; a mark that marred otherwise impossibly pale skin.  
  
"Is that the..." he questioned gently, looking up at the now nervous and frightened teenager that stood in front of him.  
  
"Yes." Severus said, voice dropping as he lowered his head. "Yes, it is. I need your help."  
  
~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Well," Sirius said  
  
"Well," replied Remus, sipping the tea he had prepared and brought into the den.  
  
"Well, what did you want to tell us?" Peter supplied, his nervous brown eyes meeting Remus's brilliant gold ones.  
  
The young werewolf took a sip of his tea and, looking around at his three wide-eyed friends calmly stated, "I wrote a novel and sent it in to a publishing company, and they responded a week later saying they liked and would go over it to decide if they wanted to consider publishing it. I haven't heard anything back since, and that was about three weeks ago. I'm getting a tad nervous about whether they like it or not, and are serious about publishing it. I figure since I can't get a real job because of my lycanthropy, I can make money somehow. I guess on top of moving and waiting for the letter I've gotten too stressed and have been snapping at everyone. I'm just bloody nervous, and the Wolf doesn't like being nervous, so I get hostile."  
  
"I didn't know you wrote!" Sirius said, light blue-grey eyes wider than normal.  
  
"That's great, Remus! Why didn't you tell us earlier?" James asked.  
  
"What type of novel?"  
  
"Do you think it'll be published?"  
  
"Can we read it? Please, Remmy?"  
  
"Are you going to dedicate it to us?"  
  
Remus continued to sip his tea as his friends fired random questions at him. When they finished he started to reply as best he could.  
  
"I didn't tell you earlier because I did it as a spur-of-the-moment thing, and I wasn't sure that anything would come of it. I only told you now to get Sirius off my back and because there's a good chance it will be published. No, I don't think it will actually get published. No, you can't read it yet. And I don't think you'd want it dedicated to you. Really, who dedicated romance novels to their high school dorm-mates, even if they are your best friends?"  
  
"Romance novel?" Sirius asked.  
  
~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Why?" Dumbledore asked in the same gentle tone.  
  
Severus shrugged and slumped back into a chair.  
  
Dumbledore looked at the boy now and compared him the memories he had of the boy-no, young man-in front of him. The proud, almost arrogant boy who excelled at potions and was a fairly good chaser held no resemblance to the miserable young man who had walked into his office that morning.  
  
"Tell me everything so I can help you. You're young, barely and adult, and if you tell me everything you now about Voldemort and his plans I'm sure I can keep you out of Azkaban, and find you a job" The old wizard continued in the same concerned voice.  
  
Sharp black eyes met his. "You'd do that...for me?" Dumbledore nodded.  
  
Severus sucked in a breath and started to speak.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
We~ll, that's chapter two. Hope you liked it. The story'll prolly pick up in the next few chapters. Lily will come in, along with some random James and Sirius-ness. I plan for those two to get into a lot of funny and strange situations. They are living in a Muggle apartment complex, after all. Peter will eventually get a personality. Expect some of good ol' Voldy in the next few chapters, along with more Severus. Sorry, I just *had* to make him semi-bishounen. He's not gonna be quite the bitter old bastard yet. I never really pictured him as being *ugly*, really...but not like "Oh my Gackt I want his body," either. 


End file.
